A few weeks ago, a few of us headed over to the Supreme Court to retrieve a suitcase. It belonged to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and it contained, effectively, her family history in photographs. We sat in the kitchen in her chambers over her lunch break. She ate a bowl of soup and told us stories about the photos.

NPR's Nina Totenberg went back a few weeks later to get Sotomayor's full story (airing throughout the week): a childhood in tenement housing in the Bronx; a diagnosis with diabetes; her father's death to alcoholism; her cousin's death to drugs; and her divorce.

She also shares memories of huge family parties, cooking with her grandmother and receiving a scholarship to Princeton (and her corollary thoughts on affirmative action).